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The Honorable Ronald J. Tenpas was appointed the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the U.S. Department of Justice on May 30, 2007 and was subsequently confirmed by the Senate to serve permanently as Assistant Attorney General.
As Assistant Attorney General, he oversees all environmental litigation involving the United States arising under more than 150 federal statutes. These statutes include the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, CERCLA (Superfund), the Endangered Species Act, NEPA, and many others. The Division’s work spans affirmative suits to stop polluters and recover clean-up costs; defending federal agencies in their administration of federal programs, including management of federal lands and other natural resources; defending federal regulatory agencies that issue environmental regulations; litigation relating to tribes and their lands; and condemnations of federal land for public uses. The Division has about 400 lawyers and annual expenditures in excess of $160 million.
Mr. Tenpas has worked in the Department for a number of years, serving as Associate Deputy Attorney General; as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois; as an Assistant United States Attorney and Branch Chief in the District of Maryland; and as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Florida in Tampa, Florida, starting in 1997. He is former law clerk to the Honorable Louis Pollak, EDPA, and Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
Mr. Tenpas received an International Relations degree from Michigan State University in 1985. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics, receiving a degree in 1987. After Oxford he attended the University of Virginia Law School from which he graduated in 1990, and where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Law Review. |
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October 9, 2008
Fact Sheet: Operation Central (08-916)
Operation Central, a three-year undercover operation conducted by federal agents and prosecutors, has resulted in the arrests and guilty pleas of seven individuals who took part in the illegal international trade of skins and products made from protected sea turtles and other wildlife.
( Read more)
Seventh Individual Sentenced for Trafficking Protected Wildlife Products (08-915)
Martin Villegas Terrones, a Mexican national, was sentenced to 24 months in prison for his role in an illegal smuggling operation that trafficked in protected sea turtle species. ( Read more)
October 7, 2008
Arizona Developer Agrees to Settle Clean Water Act Violations Along the Santa Cruz River (08-902)
An Arizona land developer and a contractor have agreed to settle alleged violations of the Clean Water Act for bulldozing, filling, and diverting approximately five miles of the Santa Cruz River, a major waterway in Arizona. ( Read more)
September 17, 2008
CITGO Pleads Guilty and is Sentenced for Clean Water Act Violation in Louisiana (08-826)
CITGO, a Delaware corporation, pleaded guilty today and was sentenced to pay a $13 million fine for the negligent discharge of pollutants into two rivers in Louisiana in violation of the Clean Water Act. The $13 million fine is the largest ever for a criminal misdemeanor violation of the Clean Water Act.
( Read more)
September 8, 2008
Campground Owner Sentenced for Clean Water Act Violation (08-797)
Abner J. Schultz, a resident of Lake Havasu, Ariz., was sentenced today in federal court in Pocatello, Idaho for a criminal violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) related to unlawful dredge and fill work along the Salmon River. ( Read more)
Illinois Cement Plant Agrees to Reduce Harmful Emissions (08-796)
Two companies that own and operate a Portland cement manufacturing facility near Dixon, Ill., have agreed to install state-of-the-art pollution controls to reduce harmful air emissions and pay an $800,000 civil penalty to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. ( Read more)
September 3, 2008
Utah Gold and Silver Refining Company Pleads Guilty to Clean Water Act Violation (08-775)
Johnson Matthey Inc., the owner and operator of a gold and silver refining facility in Salt Lake City, pleaded guilty today to a felony violation of the Clean Water Act for failing to properly report wastewater discharges at the facility. The former plant manager and former general manager both pleaded guilty to making false statements and were sentenced by Dee Benson, U.S. District Judge for the District of Utah. ( Read more)
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